About listen

Cyamodus (pron.: SIE-ah-MO-dus) is a genus of placodonts discovered from fossil remains in Germany in the early-to-mid-19th century and was named by Christian Erich Hermann von Meyer in 1863. The fossils have been dated to the Triassic Period, from the Anisian to Ladinian stages. Considered a possible turtle ancestor due to its wide flattened torso covered in dermal ossicles, but now is considered to only be closely related. Derived from a sister to Paraplacodus, Cyamodus phylogenetically preceded Placochelys.

Meyer (1863) created the genus name Cyamodus for the "Schnabelplacodus" Cyamodus rostratus holotype skull material from Bindlach, which is today preserved and displayed in the Urwelt-Museum Oberfranken, Bayreuth.